Hand-Made Leather Camera Straps and More

I’ve always loved the look, feel, and smell of leather products. (Let’s ignore that it’s a weird sentence to start a blog post with.) The problem is that whenever I find a wallet or notebook that I like, there's a big logo that ruins it for me. I like sleek and minimal products. So I decided to go with the DIY-route, and after lots of pinning on Pinterest, YouTube videos, and forum scouring, I gave leatherworking a shot.
It’s been over a year now and I love it! It's a slow and relaxing craft. Something manual that can keep me away from screens for hours. Now the funny thing is that 95% of the leathercraft education you get is… cowboyish? There are countless tutorials and guides for knife sheaths, gun holsters, or very ornate leather products with skulls and flowers. I’m more interested in modern leather accessories. Here are a few examples.

My very first product was this iPhone sleeve. Two simple pieces hand-stitched together.

Then I started experimenting with slightly more complex pieces and made a little roll-up pencil case.

Here's my Midori-style notebook cover with DIY notebooks inside. I love it and use it all the time. The best thing about using vegetable-tanned full-grain leather is that it's going to accumulate character with scratches and a nice patina over time. I like how nice and pretty it looks here, but in 5 years it'll be even better.

And of course - leather camera straps! More specifically, I made myself a dual-camera harness.

There’s been a resurgence with these harnesses lately after Holdfast came out with their leather version of camera harnesses. So I put my leathercraft knowledge to work and made myself a custom-fit harness (I also use it as regular belts because why not?). I’m really excited to try out these straps for a full wedding day in a few weeks! My back will be thanking me.

I’m also experimenting with other photography-related products. A photographer recently asked me to co-design a leather camera bag specifically for wedding photographers. In addition, I’m starting to design more traditional leather camera straps. Maybe I should work on an Etsy profile... I’m excited to see where this leathercraft-photography pairing goes!